BY TONY PRINCE
CLEVELAND - Supporters of the rights of immigrant workers held a meeting in Geneva, Ohio, on May 11 to organize plans to protest stepped-up deportations and harassment in the region by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Those present decided to hold a public forum in June in Painesville, Ohio, to expose INS persecution along the shore of Lake Erie, site of a multi-million-dollar tree and plant nursery business.

The meeting was initiated by the Alejandro Ramírez Defense Coalition, which has been organized to appeal the murder frame-up of a migrant worker.

The owners of the nurseries rely heavily on the labor of Mexican workers. Conditions are bad and the workday is often 12-14 hours, with no overtime pay and no medical benefits. Workers are on ten-month contracts that have to be renewed every year. Sometimes workers must pay the boss a $1,000 bribe for renewal of their contract.

On April 29 the INS deported 61 people in Columbus, Ohio, who were on their way to Painesville. They also arrested and deported the people who came down from Painesville to pick them up. Within a week, INS cops raided two factories in the adjacent town of Mentor. They were not admitted to one of the factories because they lacked a warrant. At the other factory they deported about a dozen people. The cops then targeted the homes of Spanish-surnamed workers from the factory.

According to migrant rights activist Verónica Flores, in one instance INS agents took five-year old twin girls and their three-year-old sister from Painesville to Cleveland and told their father when he called, "Turn in your wife and we'll return the children." The man refused, and eventually the girls were released. Flores reported that "since the end of September la migra has been targeting a different house about once a week in the Painesville area to keep the people unnerved. They come to the house about 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, kick in the door and demand to see identification. Often the people in the house are U.S. citizens who happen to have Spanish names or dark skin."

Members of the Alejandro Ramírez Defense Coalition attended the meeting, along with half a dozen immigrant workers and relatives of workers who have been deported. Also present were representatives of the Council of Hope, a coalition of churches in Ashtabula; two Cleveland Latino organizations, Club Guatemala and the Club Azteca; the Socialist Workers Party; the Escuela Popular (People's School) in Cleveland; the Cuyahoga County AFL-CIO; the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement; and St. Mary's Church in Painesville.

Miriam Botello, a U.S. citizen whose husband was deported, related a history of INS harassment and stonewalling on in her husband's case. He has been in Mexico for 277 days, unable to see his wife and baby son, while the INS "considers" his case.

Valerie Pacheco's husband left the country "voluntarily" to avoid being deported. He had arranged with his employer to have his contract renewed, but because he didn't give the employer any payoff he never heard from him. When he tried to return a couple weeks ago, the INS grabbed him and others at the airport in Columbus, Ohio.

Pat Morales described how her son-in-law moved down to Florida to avoid la migra, but was arrested and, after being imprisoned with no charges for four months, deported. Morales's daughter has now followed her husband to Mexico with their baby.

Defense of Alejandro Ramírez
The meeting also heard a report on the campaign to appeal the murder conviction of immigrant worker Ramírez. He was charged with murder in May 1997 when a man broke into the Painesville house Ramírez was living in with a number of other Mexican workers and their families. The intruder was forced out onto the front lawn and shot when he lunged at one of the residents with a knife. Ramírez was arrested although he did not carry out the shooting.

During his interrogation and his trial Ramírez had inadequate translation. He did not know he had a right to remain silent, and signed a waiver of his rights written in English, which he could not read.

At his trial last October, in which he was given a sentence of 18 years to life in prison, the police presented no evidence against Ramírez aside from his "confession", which he had already retracted. The cops had found a gun allegedly used in the shooting that did not have Ramírez's fingerprints on it, and they did not bother to try to find out whose prints they were. The defense was forced to limit its case to one day and two hours, which preventing it from presenting expert testimony that would have helped its case.

So far the Defense Coalition has raised $12,000 toward a $25,000 goal to fund Ramírez' appeal. Several fundraising dances have been held on Cleveland's West Side and in nearby Geneva.

Tony Prince, a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 188 in Cleveland, is active in the Alejandro Ramírez Defense Coalition. Verónica Flores of the Alejandro Ramírez Defense Coalition contributed to this article.  
 
 
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